Lessons From Baltimore

The above article refers to Hillary Clinton’s reaction to the unrest in Baltimore in the past week. The whole week harks back to Randy Newman’s “Little Criminals” album which featured his brilliant (both musically and lyrically) song “Baltimore” with the haunting line, “Ain’t it hard just to live, just to live.”

The main point made by Ms. Clinton, as well as by President Obama, Attorney General Holder and Senator Rand Paul, is that we have far too many young black men locked up for non-violent offenses. This of course is part of the reason that over 70% of black children are born into homes without a father, which has been mentioned by the media as a prime reason that the rioting occurred.

What was never mentioned by any of the main media outlets is another important factor: fathers refusing to fight for custody because they fear that they wouldn’t get fair treatment in family court. One reason that politicians in particular run from this topic is that many of them are generously funded by trial lawyers, who fervently oppose significant changes to our adver-sarial family court system. In this system men (and less well-connected women as well) lose 90% of contested custody cases.

One can only imagine the media uproar if 90% of blacks, but only 10% of whites, were convicted in murder cases